Morning all.
You know that guy who said Benzema is et to sign for us? Well tomorrow is the day, honest, he’s signing tomorrow. What a way to kick off our season eh, a brand new shiny striker through the door… Ok, I’m kidding but if we are to believe the ‘respected journalist’ Emanuele Giulianelli, he told Gazzetta dello Sport that the deal has almost been finalised after a successful meeting between the two parties in Madrid yesterday.
Stop yawning – here’s a post from Rogerbij…..
Finally! Its upon us, a day bigger than Christmas – the start of a new Premier League season. The excitement has been fizzing up inside like a kid who ate too much sherbet and I’m about ready to explode. Alexis Sanchez knows the feeling more intensely than most. Coming back to training this week he looking ripped, cut and ready to go. Sorry Alexis, Arsene says you must rest one more week, but he might let you sit on the bench.
The talking heads have all had their say on the BBC. The strong favourites among pundits and bookies are the blue team, having won it last year and being well stocked with money, talent and cynicism. I’m personally fine with the favourites tag being bestowed upon them, partly because the defending champion has earned the right to wear this tag and partly because defending the title is a rare occurrence not managed since 2008.
What I’m loving is that Arsenal is widely viewed as being in with a real shout at the title this season, whereas in previous seasons some pundits have lost the plot entirely by suggesting our top 4 place could be under threat. This season we are more or less second-equal favourites with City in the eyes of both the bookies and the pundits. I’m tipping us to finish ahead of City, not just because I’m a fan, but because I feel we have now got greater quality in depth than a City side with an ageing Yaya Toure, an unproven Sterling, and with so much depending on Aguero’s injury status.
Wenger and many of the players have spoken of how this is the best group of players we’ve had for a while, and the pre-season has given us real cause for optimism that we are on the cusp of something big. Oh, and also now have Cech 33, who according to a clearly shaken John Terry is worth a squillion points.
Arsenal have always had the style, but not always the consistency. Can we find it now?
I wanted to know exactly what it is going to take for Arsenal to win the PL this season, so I dug into some of the numbers from the past 7 seasons to find out.
Obviously, scoring more points than all the other teams is the surest way to win the title, but how many points are we likely to need? On average, over the past 7 seasons the champion has managed 86.7 points. Big gulp. In this time Arsenal has averaged only 73 points. Last year we managed 75 so we need a lot more points.
So how can we get those points? Clearly, points are best accumulated through more wins than the other teams, and fewer losses and on average the champion achieves 26.7 wins, 6.6 draws and suffers only 4.7 losses per season, with a win percentage of 70%. This seems more difficult than I remember. When we look at Arsenal over this same 7-year period, we average 21.4 wins, 8.9 draws and 7.7 losses, with a 56% win ratio. However, when I put on my rose spectacles I feel that everything is going to be ok. All we need to do is to turn 3 losses and 3 draws into extra wins this season and we can take the title. We can do this.
But how?
Simple, by scoring more goals and conceding fewer than our rivals. This is the surest method. Now, I’ve seen it written that Arsenal could conceivably win every game 1-0 with us all singing 1-0 to the Arsenal, 1-0 but this seems unlikely, with the most common Arsenal scoreline in the age of Wenger actually being 2-1 according to the BBC .
Now, if we want to win more games, we have to start scoring more goals consistently of course and concede fewer. In recent times, the champion is scoring an average of 86.1 goals a season and conceding 33.4 for a +52.7 goal difference. Now obviously this is meaningless if we win 3 games 10-0, but that hasn’t happened in the past 7 years of data and it won’t happen this season either. The basic fact of the matter is that over a course of a season, goals For, Against and Goal Difference are very strong predictors of winning the title. (Last season and 2008/09 were the only recent times when second place had a slightly better goal difference than the champions)
Unfortunately for Arsenal, on average we need to score about 13 more goals and concede 7 less in the league to be in with a shout. After last season’s very good defensive performance we only conceded 36, and so I feel that conceding 33 or less this season is realistic when you look at our new super-hero standing between the sticks.
Scoring 13 more goals is, in my opinion, going to be the more difficult proposition for our boys. Last season we ‘only’ managed 71. Of course Alexis will aggressively disagree, and Giroud will say ‘pas de problème’, but the fact highlighted by Wenger, as well as Devil, Rico and others on the HH boards is that more goals are needed throughout the squad this season. I agree.
Which brings us neatly to the final question: If our defensive game is on track (pray to the Gods old and new that Coquelin doesn’t get injured), who needs to step up and score our 86 goals this coming season? I saw Devil raise this question the other day on the boards, and so I borrowed and adapted his ideas for here.
13 more goals sounds like a heck of a lot, and to be honest scoring around 86 goals won’t be easy. In the past 7 seasons we are usually hovering around the low 70s, although we hit an impressive 83 in 2009/10. But break it down over a season, and its evidently doable if some of our attacking midfielders just chip in with a few more goals. I’m calling for 10 goals from Walcott, and he can surely score more than that if he doesn’t get injured again. We need 7 or more from Welbeck, and players like Ozil and the Ox should be able to knock in 6 each. I know – it’s easy to say, but harder to do.
Remember hitting these targets won’t guarantee us the title. But it’s very likely that these are the sort of cumulative performances we will have to pull off if this pans out anything like a ‘normal’ season.
We might need a little more or a little less, but basically this illustrates the big step up that the team needs to make to be champions once more.
At the dawn of this new season I’m heartened enough to even bother doing the maths – I think we can.
By Rogerbij
Morning all, thanks Rico!
Good post Roger, morning House.
Shame games so fragmented, 3.00 on first Saturday bit weak now!
If its Benzama tomorrow, somebody please tell AW 😉
Morning Roger, Andrew and all..
Good post Roger, if TW plays centrally in a few games, he needs to get 15 plus goals… imo…
Totally agree Rico, 15 from Walcott can be done if he gets a run of games… unfortunately he has only played 90mins in 3 consectutive games 4 times in his Arsenal career! So I hope for it, but can count on it 🙂
🙂 Roger, if he stays fit he could have a great season. Hope Shad has sorted him out. He does look a bit more bulked up so fingers crossed..
Morning Rico and the house..
Interesting post Roger. The targets you put down for each player look very reasonable to me, fingers crossed. I think the centre backs should be able to contribute a few more, or do they just save them for cup finals?
A little more concerning was something I saw that said West Ham had the highest percentage of goals scored by headers and Arsenal had the highest percentage of goals conceded by headers in the prem. then again didn’t someone say “there are lies damned lies and stats”
I know I am pretty new here but I need advice/help. A good friend of mine is a Spurs supporter and has asked if he can come around to watch the Spurs v United game.
1 pretend no one is in?
2 fein illness
3. Watch the game and hope for a draw (I hate United as well). Plus lots of injuries and sending offs?
Really looking forward to tomorrow
Morning Retsub, we’ll have to keep a check on that Sako (spelling) guy tomorrow, he’s petty handy…
Firstly, how can you have a Spurs supporter as a good friend?? 😉
Let him in, you can laugh regardless of the result as one of the two clubs you and most of us hate are going to drop points…. lol
Morning all
Aside from the test match has anyone seen the other good news? Thug Shawcross out for at least 2 months with a back injury. What a shame I bet he is in tears because he’s such a sensitive lad…………..
cavani or benzema pleas mr wenger
Hi Retsub, I somehow remember hearing that a while back too, but cant find the source. Its believeable of course, although I do feel we defended set pieces better last year. Still vulnerable from crosses though (eg that Gomez goal vs Swans).
Of course percentage wise it doesnt matter too much if there is no other way for teams to score. Like if we only conceed 20 goals in a season, and 50% are headers. I think Cech will also better a better judge of crosses this season, with more height that Ospina and better judgement than Schez.
Cheers!
That’s a shame Bob, was hoping he’d get stuck into a few Dippers….
Roger, I think you are spot on re crosses and Cech, he’s far more confident dealing with crosses, hopefully he’ll prevent a lot from finding an oppositions head…
We have won the premiership 3 times , our highest points haul to win is 90 , and highest goal tally is 79 . I appreciate your opinions but would like to make the point that even when we have won the league we have never been the highest scorers . The question is why ???. I believe it’s in the psyche that Wenger installs with his style of play . It’s relaxed very easy on the eye but doesn’t have the killer instinct. Once we are 2 or even 3 up it becomes indulgence time. Instead of wiping teams out we play , over pass and eventually let something slip at the back and all too often have a shaky , worrying , suspenseful last ten minutes giving the other team a head of steam . At this point we take off attacking midfielders and bring on defenders , invite teams on to us and defend for our lives. Such is life under Wenger an altruistic man without a killer streak.
And a midfielder Feddy…?
The counter to that though Potter is, how many times do we read comments on here questioning why at 2/3-0 up do we play ‘gung ho’ football? That is of course when the opponent have come back to draw…
I know what you mean though… lol
Good shout Potter, I agree Arsenal have been charged with trying to walk it in (in the past). I want the killer instinct too.
Although we have won the league with less than 80 goals before that was a long time ago, before chelsea and city really hit their straps. purposely only included recent seasons because I think the league has evolved since 2004/5.
Definitely we will need 80 as a minimum, but also recently City and Chelsea (a few years ago) have won it with over 100 goals!
We need more, or a lot of narrow wins. Narrow games are risky because one bad decision, a handball in the box or something lucky and we turn wins to draw and draws to losses 🙁
I said I wouldn’t, but I’ve weakened. The way to win the league is not just to win more games, it is much simpler than that…
Just win more points off the nearest top 3 or 4 rivals. That way the total you are aiming for comes down? The rest of the results will take care of themselves.
Cheers
Nice one roger.
I was not going to miss the graph’s and charts. lol
Morning fellow HHers btw
Potter you are spot on at 11:34AM..
I have always argued that we are not an efficient team at all…. as a matter of fact we score 5th at best on chances created.
Too many draws against ‘lesser’ opposition last season cost us, especially at home…
Yes and no Gerry 🙂 Obviously that depends on all the other top teams beating each other, rather than another dominant team beating other top teams too. But yes, in the sense that we must not lose (but can draw) against other top teams, especially away from home.
And no again, results against other teams wont take care of themselves, because they never do. We always drop too many points at certain stages of the season against the lesser teams. That was the main issue with the start of last season!
Well done England, thoroughly deserved Ashes win!!
Excellent….
Nice tsgh, can you spot the small error in one of the tables? Stats are for top 4 finishes, so manutds are slightly inflated when they dropped outside the top4 2 seasons ago.
Even when in 2002 when we had the so called 30 goals a season striker.
TH14 scored 30 goals with 7 coming from penalties.
Just so I get slated… imagine if OG12 took the 4 or 5 penalties we get on average per season.
back to 2003, Bobby was our 2nd highest scorer with 14 goals non from penalties.
3rd/4th highest scorers were DB10 and freddie CK pants with 4 goals each
Wiltord the 5th highest had only 3 goals
Edu 6th highest scorer had 2 goals
Kanu and Sol 1 goal each.
Compare that with what AW has created recently since PV04 left us…
Like Dev always says it is better to have the goals spread amongst the team imho
Wouldn’t what Gerry?
Hi Ts… Thought you’d be in you element today… lol
Roger- I am not the one to pick up on a hard job done through research.. but yes… just a minor one
none*
Arsenal v PSV U19s in the final today in Durban..4.30pm…
Afternoon you lot…..
Lol Rico. what are you trying to imply? 🙂
Don’t go loading the gun for Micko to slate me… lol 😉
Agree the spread of goal scorers is best, if they are all chipping in… and too often they are not TSGH. But to support your argument, guess who was the highest arsenal scorer in 2009/10 when we finished with 83 PL goals? (highest in last 7 years)
What’s this Ashes thing Rico.
Now what do Arsenal need to win the PL I want to say something on refs but I won’t. 🙂
Ok it’s some sort of a break (bad word to use) from injuries.
Cesc it was Roger.
2nd was AA23
My point Roger is that we do need to spread goals around but in general we need to score more . It’s not the gung ho finishes we need Rico , it’s getting goals when we are dominating which is usually at the beginning of the first and second halves. We usually dominate possession for long periods then without goal conversion.
🙂 Joe…
Ts, I couldn’t resist…
Agreed again Potter.
Even in the invincible era, we use to go into half time 3 up and then they came back into 2nd half and coasting
Bingo tsgh. exactly potter. Id really love Ozil to get it through his head that when he is in position to put his laces through it! (You dont need to tell Ramsey twice!)
I get it Potter and you are spot on, we need to blow teams always from the off and perhaps stopping the tippy tappy stuff around the box would help…
Got to nip off, in laws have arrived….
coasted*
Good Afternoon Lovelies and hunkies.
OMG. Roger….what can I say? that post has left me speechless. we do get posts which take us up a notch or two…..but this post took the bar up by several notches. I enjoyed reading it not once, twice but three times. And each time I enjoyed it more.
A superb post.
What I do not agree with you is expecting 10 of Theo. i expect 15 from him. And lets be honest….he is capable of achieving it. If he, Alexis and Ollie do not get injured 15 each is to be expected. And that is a massive 45 goals between them.
your list is not that much different from the one I posted two days ago about what I expect from each player.
If we get Benzema or any other striker who begins matches I still expect 15 each from those three. So a new striker’s goals would be a bonus. still I do not think he will come. I am not holding any breath.
Dev- what do you think Dier-Bentaleb pivot of the sperds?
Good stuff Devil, I think Theo has it in him too fitness permitting. But im being intentionally conservative because year on year injuries hold him back…
Yup, not much different from what you said a few days ago, I added last years goals spread as a comparision to see where the big changes need to come from 🙂
Johnstone & Blind at CB for yanite… hmmm
Afternoon, good read roger, More goals certainly needed from Welbeck, ox and Walcott, and if Ozil could get 10, it would help, but again it,s the consistancy that truly matters,
Arsenal finished 12 points adrift of Chelsea last season but that gap was entirely created during the first section of games when so many key players were injured.
Arsenal’s biggest problem was not one of quality, but preparation, prevention, treatment or just simply luck. If you Look at the league table for the second half of the season, Arsenal were one point ahead of Chelsea and respectively six and eight points clear of Manchester City and Manchester United. They also won the FA Cup in this period. This is not to say they would necessarily have beaten Chelsea with fewer injuries, as questions surrounding experience and big-game mentality would also have to be answered – but it would certainly have been very close.
On this day in 2004 we beat Manchester United 3-1 in the Community Shield, with Mikael Silvestre scoring an own goal… Mikel wasn’t playing for us THen at least…
Both are young so prone to a good amount of mistakes. Dier I like but Bentaleb does not excite me. However in two years time, if they stay together they will prove to be very solid.
what is my personal opinion of them??? Go and ask Jack Wheelchair. He will give you the right answer. 😉 lol
smalling and Blind even*
Dg- you have a point but conversely if you look at our form post christmas 2013/2014 season we would have finished 5th or 6th if we hadn’t had Ramsey carrying the team before his injury…
In my view, we do not have a squad strong enough to play 3 games every week from september.
Aw has always maintained a top top 12 or 13 players with the other 10 being class b or under 20 players…
I think at the moment we have 13 to 17 solid players.
our rivals have 16 to 18 solid players and so they can afford to mix it up a bit more…
😀 dev
Did you see this game- roger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q2d7SUNZTU&feature=youtu.be
Marca claiming that De Gea refused to play for Man United. He wants to move to Madrid.
Harry Redknapp back to what he does bet- “If you watch him (Wenger) shake hands, there is no warmth there. He shakes hands and he looks the other way most of the time
Is that the game from last night tsgh? Brilliant goal wasnt it! Power and speed
Ginge…..I hope that in the 16-18 you are not including the keepers. imo 16-18 solid players need to be outfield players.
Who are the solid players in your opinion?
watching Mu-totts
1fs note: MU have players not a team
Keanne wasn’t an Arsenal player and fan?
own goal by walker. lol
!-0 ushited
Man United appear to be missing their best player Fellaini. Their players are used to hoofing the ball for him upfront.
It was last nights game Roger
Dev- I would say the grade A players are:- Bellerin, Per, Kosser, Monreal
Arteta*, Ramsey, SC19, Ozil
OG12, Theo, AS17
Grade B players: Debuchy, Gibbs, gabriel, Le Coq*, JW, Ox, Welbeck.
Ok some might argue Le Coq is grade A and Arteta is grade B at best but it still shows we are low on numbers
JM- is wiliam still moving?
I left out my fave TR07 because I don’t know if he is leaving or staying… I will consider him a grade A player for the 15 or so appearances he will make though…
Ts, has Carvalho not got a bad injury?
Basically tsgh, what your saying is we don,t have the squad as yet to win the premier league, I do tend to agree, but with Costa,s and Aguero,s inevitable injuries, we do look the most equipped to step in if there is any slip ups.
Morning Rico and all. Yes Harry, that’s because when he shakes hands with you he is checking that his wristwatch is still there, you shithead.
I had forgotten that SS are The Metro of TV football. FFS what is Phil Thompson talking about? Too many back passes must have gone to his head.
In short yes Dg
look at our performances/results before UCL group stages starts.
There is this huge misconception that we lost the league title in the first 10 games.
I think we lost it between september and January looking at the results.
lol Adam.
He has Bt… reason I was asking?
You have listed 18 players there add in a couple of keepers to make 20 out of a 25 man squad . If you change Arteta for Le Coq you see that Debuchy and Gibbs can replace the full backs without too much problem . Gabriel can fit in the middle and then he has to choose between moving a full back or bringing in Chambers.Further forward the Ox and Welbeck can replace Theo and Sanchez. JW is seemingly a luxury permacrock so cannot be relied upon , so with only Rosicky able to stage Santi and Ozil and Theo having to move should Giroud get injured we are light both up front and in the middle.
As has been the way of Wenger’s stewardship of late we always seem to be patching up and making do. Pick our first 15 ( with Subs ) and we are good enough to match up anyone. Unfortunately Wenger doesn’t seem to take the inevitable injuries into account.
Surely lost it in the first 12 games tsgh? 4 wins, 5 draws, 3 losses, (win percent 33%)
Thats actually a good illustration of why we need more goals. Should not be drawing with everton, hull, spurs, leicester, losing to Swans… lots of those were totally unavoidable.
Carvalho will stop for 3 months. He doesn’t play tomorrow versus Benfica. (sporting-benfica – first game of the season)
the U19’s kick off at 2 in the final in Durban
Huddart(GK),Eyoma,Bola,Pleguezuelo, O’Connor(C),Tutu, Zealem,Mourgos, Sheaf, Hindis,Fortune
Eduardo, its listed on Cricfree….
Manchester United fans in 2012/13: “We don’t sell our best players like Arsenal,”
Zelaem missed Pen but Sheaf has scored a cracker to give us the lead
Unstopable r/f shot from about 35 yds.
Rick did you find a feed for it?
How rude of me
Good afternoon Rico and the House.
Toral Isaac Chuba and Dan all start for todays Games.
I missed Niles off the list he starts as well.
Bt there it is not being shown live in the UK
However if you can log on to jeorge bird he is showing the goal that Sheaf scored .
From what I have seen on him this lad could have a great season in front of him.
. H/T still 1-0
https://twitter.com/ArsenalStuff_BR/status/630008015144525824
anyone got a good stream for the U19 game
Its now 1-1
eduardo there is no live stream outside s/a
odd that the final is not streamed when the semi was
Great post Roger….
But I have to disagree…
Christmas is the biggest day of the year. 😉
Roast potatoes, turkey, Yorkshire pud, nah mate, that’s still top with me… 🙂
Yum,Yum Kev….Could do with one now… merry xmas
Thanks, and goodness Kev youre right, the food is far better at Christmas!!
With time running out Fortune has put us back in the lead
Rick, is that his second goal for us since signing?
the winning goal from Fortune
https://vine.co/v/ewdV0FVzQX7
We have won 2-1 an excellent win.
Sheaf 3 goals Fortune 2 goals and goal keeper Huddart have been outstanding.
Thanks Eduardo, quality piece of play..
Lovely post rog – Excited about tomorrow.We do not need Benzema.
Time for Ollie, TW and DW23 to prove themselves.
Cheers
Although Zelalem missed a penalty in the final, he has been good in all our earlier games
Sheaf ends joint top scorer with 3 goals, and what I like about Fortune is that he scored one goal with his right foot and the second one with his left. He seems to be a good dribbler too, it seems he could rival Rene-adelaide as bargain of the summer
Two Arsenal players who died with Arsenal jerseys:
– 29/11/1896 Joe Powell (26) – woolwich Arsenal
In early November, a broken arm in a match against Kettering and soon contracted tetanus. He suffered the amputation but died a week later.
-19/2/1916 Bob Benson (33) – Arsenal
He suffered the bursting of an artery during a game against Reading.
Kev and the glass of sherry, strictly medicinal of course.
tsgh, some will say you don’t lose the league in August but weren’t we something like 11 points behind the chavs after 6 games last season finishing 12 behind them in May !
Torral scores for the Brummies.
Both goals here if you look for them.
https://twitter.com/ArsenalStuff_BR
Think you summed it up succinctly Potter.
You are right Roger.But if you compare the number of points we were behind Chelsea to the number of points man city was behind us 2 seasons ago you will c what I am trying to talk about.
Basically if we were to sub our points tally with our points last season we would have been closer…
Also compare the improvement Chelsea made in terms of points accumulated from previous season to ours and one might note we regressed even though we did not get thrashed 6:0 by anyone.
Rosicky to make 15 or so appearances this season, have you got a prescription for those drugs tsgh !
BT/Roger 😀
Great result for the Kids.
The trophies just won’t stop rolling in…
Lol Micko.
I ain’t telling
Was it Maitland Niles Rick?
Sherry Mick?
No fear mate, a nice glass of Merlot or a sparkling red…
That’s with the meal…
A couple of beers beforehand…
Blimey I’m getting hungry… 😉
Good news re: Toral…
Sparkling white….
Roger, got a feeling rico will be roping you in to do a few more posts in the future ! You’ve made your bed now.
Micko the way I see it is as follows:
2 seasons ago man city finished with 86 points,Chelsea 82 points and us 79 points after leading the league for a record number of weeks.
Last season we finished 12 points behind Chelsea who improved by 5 points whilst we were 4 points worse off.
Hayden has been booked…
Crowley started for Barnsley.
Lasted 57 minutes…
Thanks Micko, when an idea springs to mind Ill write something – more fun than writing reports!
TSGH: “one might note we regressed even though we did not get thrashed 6:0 by anyone.” Very good point and i noted that… didnt want to say anything to jinx us 😉 Its a fair point though, we didnt score more goals than average last year, we didnt really get more points… but we all feel we did better and are on the up. I really think a lot of it is up to Coq who did great and sured up the defence. Having just watched the ManU game today I though Schniederlin will be good for them and again wished we bought him. He wouldve replaced Arteta, Flamini and even Rosicky. Defence and passing quality I think. Missed a trick there.
Kev akpom scores first goal.
akpom with his first league goal
Akpom has scored for Hull
tsgh, that might as well have been written in Swahili, if your trying to confuse me it worked !
Akpom puts Hull 2 up.
Akpom scores
OK I was close I get the bronze medal
How about jay Simpson for Orient ☺
Was our defence better last season I will say a big No.
If you take out the 20 goals we conceded against Everton, city Chelsea we would have conceded only 26 goals…
I meant as compared to 2 seasons ago
Ts….. “IF” you Aunt had balls she’d be your Uncle………………. “IF” being the key word of course..!
very good game Everton-Watford
Lol joe
Dan Crowley played a big part in the Barnsley Goal and went close to scoring just after.
Chuba and Isaac have been on the recieving end but are holding their own.
So far a good day for our youngsters
Retsub1 11.07, the only thing a yiddo’s good for is toilet roll holder, that’s my advice.
No matter whether the player is an A or B player I feel that the is a very good team at Arsenal. But by the looks of it there’s a lot of room in the squad for purchase’s if Wenger wants them and I hope he does.
Retsub if and when Micko tells you to look left you will should look right. 🙂
Long may it continue Rick.
Did Hayden play in CM?
Evening all, boy they were hard to get rid of…..?
Hoe say has goalie issue
Stew first start
Micko, I think you make a good point… Next please Roger… Lol
In Durban Ben Sheaf has won player of the tournament, this after looking out of his depth
playing for the U18’s just a year ago.
Ginge I am being told that Zelaman was a real disappointment. He was taken off at half time in the final group game and only played the final 8mins in the semi.final
They say he was very fatigued and they are now looking at his stamina just what you and I
have been saying for the past 2 seasons
Good stuff re Akpom and Toral…
Ayew
Thanks for update Rick.
It is a concern ‘re fatigued and stamina with Gedion.
He has the quality but he makes bebatov look like Sanchez work ethics wise.
the U19’s
Afternoon All…
Excellent post Roger…
If Walcott stays fit for 30 starts, I’d bet he’d score 20 whether from middle or wide…he’s the best finisher in the team.
We haven’t even played yet and we are still above spurs ?
So mean Joe.Lol
Hi tai
⚽️⚽️ joe
Agree Tai, definitely the best finisher now Podolski has gone…
Gomis should have scored?….
Good call oliver.
Jose having a fit on the touchline.lol
Never a pen.
True Rico.but it has been given before
Hello Ts…did you see my comment on Iheanacho overleaf?
I am goons check back…
Gonna…
Ts…how come you left out Le Coq, Ox, Jw, Debuchy from your pick of grade A players? Even Gabriel will make grade A with few games under his belt. When Debuchy picks up, he’d put Bellerin back on the bench…one good thing is that we now have two dependable right backs.
Come to think of it, is Gibbs truly grade B?
Mourinho would beg to differ Ts.. Lol
Oscar…Chelsea are definitely not playing like they did in pre-season…sharp all over the pitch!
Ayew!
Good afternoon lovelies and hunkies
Good post Roger. Better than the one this morning. Lol. 😉
Chavs 1-1
Tai ‘re your post from yesterday you are spot on…
I don’t consider debuchy world class or a tactically astute player.
‘re le coq you know my views on him.maybe by January he will get more experience but for now he won’t make us better in ucl matches.
Tactically he was inferior to Chelsea midfield trio last weekend.imho
Tai all the players you mentioned have potential to be top players but for the moment realistically they have potentially only….imho.
Rico Jose looks pleased.what a lucky man he is…
I just looked at the grade A players, Arteta?? What are you smokin Ts… Lol
Isn’t he just Ts…. Long way to go though….
Hazard the diver!
Lol Rico.
Arteta as a grade A was a bait… Lol
Thanks, Ts…re Iheanacho…just pray the boy realises his potential…
Well…any player that can play for any ‘big’ European national side is grade A…which Debuchy is….Ox too. Unless you mean world class….I’d consider Welbeck grade A as well.Le Coq was good against Chelsea…the Chavs are usually too physical.
Tau-Well I never rated debuchy defensively.
He was a part of the defensive failings the earlier part of the season.
Ox is a top top player potentially but after playing 150+ games for us even at 21 y.I all we can say is he will be world-class if he went injury free.imho
Fibber Ts….
Can’t agree re Debuchy at all…
Think you are harsh on OC too…
Re Debuchy, I have a feeling you are comparing him to Sagna because the latter bailed out Merts so often. Which, if right, surely the problem is Merts, not Debuchy?
??
Courtios off!
Well, Ts…I wouldn’t down grade a player’s ability for sake of incessant injuries. If so, you shouldn’t have rated Arteta!Ox will end up top top player… It’s your take on Debuchy…I rate him grade A…our early season failings were caused by Per’s World Cup hangover and Koscielny’s injury…remember Debuchy, Monreal and Chambers all played CBs that early. Plus Chez was pathetic!
LOL……
Jose…… You sold the wrong keeper hah
Calamity at ST…Courtois sees red…pen and 2 – 2!
Costa is a real s**t bag!
He’s a DOG…Rico
Nah BT, dogs are lovely…. He’s a git!
Yep Costa is a nasty git. Would be a real tragedy if he copped a stray elbow
Or his hamstring really went!
Can’t believe Oliver hasn’t booked a few Chelsea players for dissent….
Only a git…..
Just trying to remain polite BT…. Lol
Well, The Ashes are home and Mourinho’s got the hump. All good then.
Nothing more than i would expect from a Lady..
A great day all round Adam….
Long may it continue Rico. 🙂
The question was asked after the Chelsea game and their preseason is the something wrong with Chelsea.
Well the answer is yes the manager, owner, club captain, their forward and their racist fans they are all wrong.
Indeed Adam…
Benzema will sign for arsenal for 70m,perez is a thug first it was ozil,di maria and now it benzema.it looks like wenger really wants the player they even called usmanov to get the deal done…evening all
Have you only just realised Joe? ?
Why would Usmanov get involved Drake?
Bt 8.21, normal service to resume from 1.30pm onwards tomorrow.
Yep I thought the place was full of nice people 🙂
Just watched Ashes celebrations, Roots a lad isn’t he, good job Warner not around!
And caught last ten minutes Chelsea, didn’t realise they had 10! Gonna put MOTD on planner now :-). Can’t wait for tomorrow, hope Sanchez a sub, just for boost it will give.
? BT but Micko is right….
Ward was game for a laugh too Andrew, great scenes….
Got love Jose dancing a jig on the sideline because he’s physio ran on the pitch to treat Hazard.
Drake you are deluded if you think anyone at AFC called Usmanov for help with any transfer.
I’m off guys…
Night all..
Eduardo, we don’t do ‘your deluded’ on here!! Get with it!
Looking forward to that Micko….
Nite rico, it would be nice to tap into peoples memorable open day fixtures tomorrow, mine goes back to the 80’s, I’ll bore you all with that tomorrow lol !
Adam, it’s that time of year again, time to go scrummaging for your lucky underpants, you know it makes sense !
Nite Gooners, keep it real.
Lucky spandex…
Micko. I am doing it right now. 🙂
Did we win the cricket?
Thierry Henry said earlier this week that his former club would certainly win the league if they signed Benzema from Real Madrid this summer. Arsenal have been heavily linked with the 27-year-old during this transfer window after rumours suggested he would not see as much regularly playing time under Rafa Benitez this season. Wenger has insisted that no bid is imminent, however, and he expects Arsenal’s attacking players to score plenty of goals without a new addition. “I respect Thierry Henry a lot for his football knowledge but it’s not as mathematical as that,” he said. “I believe we can win the league. We look when we go forward like we can score goals. “Even when we were dominated in the second half against Chelsea, every time we crossed the halfway line it looked like something could happen. “I think we have to develop our collective game and we have to depend less on one guy that comes in and scores all the goals. “I don’t see why a player like Oxlade-Chamberlain should not have an ambition to score 10 goals, Sanchez can score goals and Ozil has to fix himself a target of at least 10. We can share that more than when Thierry played. “I think Giroud will not be far from 20, if he had played all of last season he would have scored 20. Walcott as well.”
Doesn’t look like a CF is coming……
Morning all,lee we will sign benzema,real madrid have signed rues but all will be revealed soon… eduardo it a collective team work when signing big money players stan was there when we signed ozil and sanchez,since he is busy he called usmanov to go and help
Morning Lee.
Your boys gave ours a right belting, so hats off to them.
Clarke has made the right call to retire…..I’d hate to see him tapped on the shoulder or sacked so best he goes on his terms.
His footwork, which has always been incredibly good, has recently been incredibly bad.
Chelski….2-2 with a deflected own goal.
They looked average in the pre season so let’s hope that continues.
Spurs…..well they continue to amuse.
Drake, I guess Wenger talks with a forked tongue when talking about prospective signings….. Benzema would be an excellent acquisition but for me we need cover for the Coq unless he plans on using Debuchy (who started his career as a DM) or someone else within the squad?!?! All will be revealed in the fullness of time!
Benzema has been sold to us 70m plus 5m add ons,another player we want to sign is camacho of malaga the deal has stalled because we have not agreed on payments of instalments.arsenal have tried to keep their transfer dealings private but someone from the inside keeps on leaking them it happened to cech now benzema
The dm Camacho of malaga
You seem certain Drake!
I don’t know anything about Camacho, what’s he like?
Morning all you lovely people….
Good Morning Lovelies and Hunkies.
Drake, from where did you get the news on Camacho???
I have seen him play a couple of times….he looked solid. not as good as Busquets is but he is solid and a team player. he prefers sitting in front of the defence and holds his position well.
but seen him only for two games. so cannot comment that much further.
Drake, you and Piers Morgan seem to know more about Benzama deal than Sky Bet who had evens but now 6/4!
Piers Morgan isn’t that Wath’s mate? 😉
Benzema eh? Zzzzzzzzzzzz
Morning you lot…
Excited? 😉
Morning me Lady, can’t wait for it all to to start..
Excited and confident, Rico 🙂
New post up now..
Morning Scott and Bt… Me too 🙂